Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

[BrawlMan]

In Samurai Warriors 5, there are weapon set clones for specific and certain characters. This game has a shorter roster, making this more notable. To make up for this, even if two characters share the same weapon, their move set is distinct from each other. That includes their basic attack combo strings, hyper attacks, and even their Muso or Rage Mode/True Muso attacks. Thereby not making any character full-on move set clones.

I know people take issues with the weapon set cloning, but no reviewer I've seen so far have bothered to mention this gameplay element. Even the people who love this game. I get this game is contested among the hardcore fans, but could none of you have bothered at actually trying to notice something soobvious.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I love how the modern Resident Evil games strictly adhire to not showing hands when keys or puzzle items are used. The RE games now fall into the over-the-shoulder third-person action games with cinematic flair, like a lot if not most AAA games do now, but unlike those games it never bothers showing the characters use items. There's no animations for Leon reaching in his pocket to retrieve a key and then slide it into the lock, or of Jill placing a medallion into a round indentation; we just see the key in mid air go into the lock and click it open. No need for arduous hand and finger animations like you'd see in a Naughty Dog or Santa Monica game, just a clean simple action. And beyond that it still maintains that old Resi item use feeling.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I love how the modern Resident Evil games strictly adhire to not showing hands when keys or puzzle items are used. The RE games now fall into the over-the-shoulder third-person action games with cinematic flair, like a lot if not most AAA games do now, but unlike those games it never bothers showing the characters use items. There's no animations for Leon reaching in his pocket to retrieve a key and then slide it into the lock, or of Jill placing a medallion into a round indentation; we just see the key in mid air go into the lock and click it open. No need for arduous hand and finger animations like you'd see in a Naughty Dog or Santa Monica game, just a clean simple action. And beyoind that it still maintains that old Resi item use feeling.

Never thought of it that way, but that's an interesting perspective.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I love how the modern Resident Evil games strictly adhire to not showing hands when keys or puzzle items are used. The RE games now fall into the over-the-shoulder third-person action games with cinematic flair, like a lot if not most AAA games do now, but unlike those games it never bothers showing the characters use items. There's no animations for Leon reaching in his pocket to retrieve a key and then slide it into the lock, or of Jill placing a medallion into a round indentation; we just see the key in mid air go into the lock and click it open. No need for arduous hand and finger animations like you'd see in a Naughty Dog or Santa Monica game, just a clean simple action. And beyond that it still maintains that old Resi item use feeling.

Doesn't that just save them work animating all those character actions?

 

[BrawlMan]

Doesn't that just save them work animating all those character actions?

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[Drathnoxis]

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That is to say, why is this aversion to work impressive?

 

[BrawlMan]

That is to say, why is this aversion to work impressive?

Ask @Casual Shinji. Though he literally already gave the answer.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That is to say, why is this aversion to work impressive?

Sometimes a (AAA) game refraining from showing off IS impressive. When it chooses to be snappy as opposed to overly animated. And in Resident Evil's case it's not an aversion to work, it's about strictly highlighting the item/key. The old RE games would just say 'you used the [insert item/key name here]', and that phrase itself already felt important because it meant progression. Now the item or key get a little animation, but you only see the item/key, emphasizing their importance to your progression while at the same time cutting back on needing to animate an entire character model. It's efficient game design that perfectly matches the aesthetic of the game.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Ask @Casual Shinji. Though he literally already gave the answer.

I thought I already did, and yet here we are.

Sometimes a (AAA) game refraining from showing off IS impressive. When it chooses to be snappy as opposed to overly animated. And in Resident Evil's case it's not an aversion to work, it's about strictly highlighting the item/key. The old RE games would just say 'you used the [insert item/key name here]', and that phrase itself already felt important because it meant progression. Now the item or key get a little animation, but you only see the item/key, emphasizing their importance to your progression while at the same time cutting back on needing to animate an entire character model. It's efficient game design that perfectly matches the aesthetic of the game.

Can't say I really see why it's impressive, especially as it's not even the way it was in the original. I remember the door opening and the camera stepping through but I forgot that you didn't see the key going into the lock in RE. I guess I'm remembering that from Luigi's Mansion, which I think was a more effective use of the door opening style with Luigi's shaking hand slowly turning the knob.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Can't say I really see why it's impressive, especially as it's not even the way it was in the original. I remember the door opening and the camera stepping through but I forgot that you didn't see the key going into the lock in RE. I guess I'm remembering that from Luigi's Mansion, which I think was a more effective use of the door opening style with Luigi's shaking hand slowly turning the knob.

Different strokes, I guess.

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Dante's guns in the first Devil May Cry eject bullet casings, which will bounce on the ground and stay prevent for a pretty long time after being fired. For a game from 2001, and in practically the first year of the PS2's release, that's fairly impressive to include.

 

[BrawlMan]

stay prevent present for a pretty long time after being fired. For a game from 2001, and in practically the first year of the PS2's release, that's fairly impressive to include.

The original Dead to Rights did the same thing a year later. And that game was an early XBOX title that ported to GC and PS2 a year later.

 

[Worgen]

In Octopath Traveler 2 and probably Octopath Travler, you have different jobs and it even changes the characters outfit in combat, but while you would expect the outfits to be different based on gender. Pants for guys, dresses for girls, each character also has slight differences to the outfits, like a slit dress instead of just a dress. Each also is fully animated with the characters moveset.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Like most of the Metroid games following Super, Metroid Dread contains a number of rooms that are unusually hot or cold, damaging Samus very quickly if she doesn't have the right equipment to resist extreme temperatures. Unlike those games, even the 3D ones, there's a particle effect visible through doors to extreme-temperature rooms even while they're closed, but highly visible once they're opened, removing the need to enter a room and start taking damage before you realize that you shouldn't be there. They're also marked on the map in red or light blue if you entered one to further remind you not to go back there yet.

Hell runs (taking a shortcut through a hot room without protection) are still possible in certain places.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

In Hollow Knight Silksong, if you fall far enough that Hornet gets stunned for a moment upon landing, the force of the impact will cause any nearby pickups on the ground to be launched slightly into the air as well.

 

[Worgen]

In Hollow Knight Silksong, if you fall far enough that Hornet gets stunned for a moment upon landing, the force of the impact will cause any nearby pickups on the ground to be launched slightly into the air as well.

In the ant hive there are little ants that will carry anything that is dropped, destroyed terrain, money, dead enemies, etc.

 

[thebobmaster]

Mentioned this in my Mass Effect thread, but I like how at least in the Legendary Edition, during the boss fight on Therum, Liara doesn't mysteriously vanish during the fight. Even though she can't contribute, you can see her taking cover on the other side of the room as the fight is going on.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

The way conversations are handled in Katana Zero, with spoken text being typed at different speeds, different movement effects and colors. Even with no voice acting, it really helps to make the dialogue 'sound' so much better - and it allows you to interrupt people, which causes the text in their speech bubble to shatter to the ground, really driving home the impact of what you're saying (directly and subtly) when you do. It adds so much to the game's story, and it's something that more text-only games IMO need to do, both the typing-at-different-speeds thing (a lot of games do) and interrupting people in dialogue (which, AFAIK, only Mass Effect has really done besides K0).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

 

[NerfedFalcon]

A late-game Special Attack in Hi-Fi Rush, 'Steal the Show', has 808 (the robot cat that follows Chai around) distract enemies by being cute, stunning them and opening them up to free damage. It even works on some bosses.

It doesn't work on the final boss because he prefers dogs.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Desert Ruins Zone 3 in Sonic Lost World is a Sweet Mountain-inspired candy level, which may be a bit unfitting with the surrounding levels, but Lost World has a lot of Zone 3s that take a very different line to the rest of the world. This one has the benefit, however, that the loading screen adds an arrow above the S and E in 'Desert' with another S, implying the name of the area should be 'Dessert Ruins Zone 3'.